Rev. Greg Haseloff – “More or Less”

March 13, 2014

"Don’t be obsessed with getting material things. Be relaxed with what you have. Since God assured us, “I’ll never let you down, never walk off and leave you.” Hebrews 13.5 (The Message)

In light of the great G. K. Chesterton’s words – “Gratitude is the mother of all the virtues” – what forces rival our efforts to live with this virtue? The cultural onslaught that competes with our kingdom allegiances is almost immeasurable. We don’t just mark time by what happened on Sept. 11, 2001. We also mark it by the economic crash of 2008. The conversation of ‘which presidential candidate’ inevitably included the topic of economics. The choice of a major, decisions about what to drive, whether or not you are Mac or PC, and what kind of house you choose to live in are all decisions that have some connection to allegiance and financial choices. When does too much attention to finances impact the degree of ‘our thanks-giving’?

You’ve heard that Jesus actually says a great deal more about money than sexuality. Scripture has hundreds of references to money because it competes so powerfully – and because we have to face it directly in our pursuit to genuinely call Him LORD and be sanctified in the practice of ‘having no other gods before Him’.

Chesterton also says, “There are two ways to get enough. One is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.” As we who live in the western world talk about stewardship, we can find it comfortable practicing stewardship of accumulation. The thoughts of Chesterton provoke us to another possibility – ‘the stewardship of less.’ If having less of the material to steward is a direction the Lord is inviting, then what might He be increasing in order for you to steward? Can we say this year that there is an increase in our ‘thanks-giving’?